in the in between
by Suk-fong
Summary: He finds her in the in betweens and loses her in the day light. (Age of X)


It is the first night at Fortress X when he sees her, the tiny girl with the dark hair and the green eyes. She keeps to the shadows and lets others push her aside. He is bored, which is why he watches her glide in and out of crowds, like a ballerina, until she finally finds a place in the corner of the room.

By now he has made it a sport, guessing where she will turn next, and how will she avoid any social contact, which is why he is surprised over a crowded room she seems to look him in directly in the eye. He does not know her in the slightest, but he gets the impression she is not impressed that he is making a silent spectacle of her.

He raises his glass in acknowledgement. She does not look away, and she doesn't smile

Whatever. She's no one anyway.

* * *

It sours his mouth, being on the defensive. He is not a person who sits and waits for an attack to come. He prefers being on the front line, bringing the attack to whoever needs it.

He is Julian Keller, Hellion assertive aggressive grade A asshole. And one of the most powerful telekinetic mutants. Which means, logically, he is one of the five mutants in charge of the 'Force Wall', with the lovely title of being a 'Force Warrior.'

But with being a 'Force Warrior' comes recognition and recognition comes girls, who now are easier than picking daisies-not that it was hard before- but there is a certain prestige with being with a Force Warrior.

He won't pretend he doesn't enjoy the perks. He rarely leaves the Rat Run alone, when he goes.

* * *

It is four months in, when he happens to see her at one of Magento's meetings. It is boring as fuck, but he has to go. He almost drops the mug of lukewarm coffee when he sees the girl, small, and tiny like she has never had a full meal in her life enter the room, dressed in black leather.

He watches as her nostrils flare and she looks at him. He can see her recognize him, and he wonders if she knows who he is.

She is never introduced, but from where she stands, in the corner where she can see both the door and the windows as well as the entire room, and who talks to her he gathers she is one of Moonstar's Cadre. She is a hunter, special ops.

He wonders how dangerous this girl, because really she cannot possibly be older than sixteen, really is.

When they're dismissed, he moves quickly before the girl dances away into the shadows, and he will go four more months before seeing the girl with the green eyes again.

'-Dust, Talon I want you to go do another look. Double check okay?' he overhears Moonstar say, before leaving the room.

And before he can stop the girl from going, she and Dust leave.

Well now he knows her codename, Talon. It doesn't suit her, he thinks. Talon makes him thing of something sharp, cold and precise.

The girl with green eyes just looks lost and scared.

* * *

It takes careful asking, or rather just Psylocke reading his mind for him to find out her real name. Laura, that's it. No surname, no middle name, nothing.

Her name is Laura, she goes by Talon and she is a hunter. She is the offense.

'She looks too young to do this.' He comments to Psylocke. Psylocke laughs and he wonders if there is something he has missed.

But regardless, he is twenty-four and no matter what the world has become, he will not hit on a sixteen year old.

He forgets Laura, the girl with the green eyes.

* * *

Five weeks later, he comes to the Rat Run early to see her perched on a bar stool in deep conversation with Wolverine, and a half full pint of beer in front of her. She doesn't even glance his way.

He blinks, there is no one else in Rat Run-he is here freakishly early, but he doesn't think Wolverine would serve minors.

He sits down beside her. 'Think you'd get in trouble for serving minors.' He asks, nodding for a pint.

The girl-Laura's shoulders move, like she finds it amusing.

Wolverine looks at him long and hard as he gives him the beer he asked for. 'Laura hasn't been a minor for how many years now Laur?'

'I was eighteen three years ago.' She says, and her voice is clear with an accent he can't place. Her diction is perfect.

'Shit.' He swears, 'I thought you were fifteen.'

'Keep thinkin' that Keller.' Wolverine says, suddenly looking predatory though he has lost his mutation.

'It happens when you grow up chained to a bed,' Laura says, looking him in the eyes. 'You often end up malnourished.'

There is a moment where it feels like she is testing him. He looks back at her unwavering, and not letting any pity he feels for whatever the hell her childhood was show.

She pushes her stool away from the bar, the noise of it making the only sound in the whole bar, and he watches her walk away.

* * *

It is only later; Psylocke takes pity on him and explains it to him. Laura is Wolverine's daughter, Wolverine and her mother ended their relationship, and went on their merry ways. But when they began testing for the X gene, Laura tested positive and instead of being put in a jail, or a holding facility like everyone else, she was kidnapped by people with a grudge against Wolverine.

She was only four, but she spent over ten years of her life being chained to a bed at the mercy of the men and woman who had a nasty fetish. His stomach rolls and he understands why she avoids crowds and people.

He asked how she got out, Psylocke told him that her mutation became apparent when puberty hit, and she massacred them all. Wolverine found her when she was sixteen, but by then she had already made her name for herself as a high profile assassin.

He can't believe it.

Psylocke asks when he'll ask her out.

He gives her the finger in response.

* * *

He begins to look for her now, and he finds her in the shadows. He doesn't understand anything about her, but he wants to.

Every time he tries to find her she disappears, he wonders if she does it on purpose.

It frustrates him.

Talon, the hunter who takes the offense.

Laura, the little girl who had horrible things happen to her.

Or the girl with green eyes, who draws his attention.

Who is she?

Why does he care?

* * *

There is an attack, and he has to maintain the Force Wall. And when they are maintaining the wall, they are attacked and he sees Moonstar's Cadre in action.

He understands why she is called Talon as the sentinels attack. She is beautiful, and deadly, with two delicate claws in each hand. He stares, as she leaps over him, scaling the leg of one of the oversized sentinels in seconds.

It's like a beautiful ballet, as she dances in the flames of gunfire and other weapons, painting herself and others the deep crimson colour found in veins.

He stares, transfixed. And he thinks maybe Talon is who she is.

Afterwards, she approaches him as he walks towards food.

'You watch me,' she says, and again she looks at him. This time he knows the way to describe how she looks at him, she looks at him like she sees everything he is and everything he isn't. She looks at him so thoroughly, he feels naked.

He shrugs, there is no point denying it. 'You're interesting,' he says breezily, steering her into the canteen, 'Daughter of Wolverine, looks like she's sixteen but will kill you in a heartbeat.'

'You should stop.' She says, as he stands in line, debating on what to get.

'I don't think I will.' He says, because she obviously wants him to, and yes her father is terrifying and she is just as terrifying as her father, but he is still Julian Keller. And he doesn't like being told what to do.

She glares at him, and he sees a semblance of emotions, in the river of anger and irritation flash in her eyes.

Good. He smirks back at her, and the smirk becomes wider when she turns and stalks off.

He memorizes the slight sway in her hips that he is positive wasn't there before.

* * *

She becomes hard to ignore, now that he has promised he will not stop watching her. He sees her with her teammates, with her father, and when she is alone.

He has noticed that she is only alone with Wolverine, ever. Otherwise she is with three people or none at all. He does not know why, and it's intriguing.

Everything about the girl with the green eyes/Laura/Talon interests him.

It's in the frame of mind, he approaches her at Rat Run, where she is before the crowd comes, nursing a beer.

'Drinking by yourself in a sign of an alcoholic, kid.' He says sitting beside her.

'I am hardly a child.' She says coolly. He raises an eyebrow, that is what she takes offensive of?

'You're what twenty-one?' He asks, waving for a beer. 'You're a kid to me.'

'You are only three years older than me.' She says hotly, and he hides his smirk behind the beer. He's never told her how old he is. Or his name.

Which means she must have asked about him.

'Still a kid.' He says, watching irritation colour her green eyes.

'I am not a child.' She says hotly, and he watches her slam the glass half filled with beer down.

He doesn't hide his smirk anymore, 'Tell ya what kid. If you beat me I'll stop calling you kid.'

Wolverine laughs, and she smiles, her first real smile he has ever seen.

'And when I win?' She asks, and he thinks she should smile more often.

'Like that will happen.' He scoffs, and leads her to the door.

* * *

She is smirking at him across the small grass field, like she is already planning her victory dance.

Tch. Good luck Green Eyes.

Wolverine nods, and she's gone in a flash. But he is ready.

She hits his shields and he sees her eyes narrow.

It becomes a dance, a tango between them. She attempts to penetrate his defenses and he plays keep away.

He likes the rhythm they have set, but he wants to change it up.

She pounces, expecting to be caught by his shield. He drops it, and one large hand circles around her tiny forearm forcing her to the ground, before the rest of his body follows, and he's straddling her.

He likes the way she looks on her back, both arms restrained by his hand, her appearance is disshelved, and he likes the way he can feel her breathe on his neck.

'I won kid.' He smirks, watching her mouth twist into a pretty smile, and maybe he is thinking of shortening the distance between their mouths, when he finds himself flat on his back.

She is straddling him, and smirking at him, and there is the sound of metal escaping skin and two long claws come towards his throat.

He should be terrified.

He is turned on.

'I think I won.' She says, before hopping off him.

* * *

If he thought she was hard to ignore before, that was nothing compared to now.

He smells her perfume whenever he enters a room, and he knows she's just left it.

He tries to catch her eye, but she ignores him.

He never noticed her before, but now that he is looking for her, he can't find her.

It's odd.

He doesn't know what he is doing, or why he is doing it; but he wants to know her.

He wants to know everything about Green Eyes; he wants to know what makes Laura tick.

And he can't find her.

* * *

It's another attack, and he's focusing. There are sentinels, but what's more there are humans in armour, almost fused to their skin, and guns.

He and the Force Warriors take care of the sentinels, and out of the corner of his eyes, he sees a small girl with dark hair and bright green eyes, as a hurricane of adamantium and blood.

He knows Laura can take care of herself, and there is nothing between them but she's younger than him, and he's worried.

He gets himself hit.

He thinks he sees green eyes.

* * *

He wakes up in his bed, and he can smell her perfume like he's bathing in it. He's not fully awake, but he can hear her breathing in the room. It's serene and he wonders why she is there.

He shifts, and he can feel Laura begin to leave.

'Stay,' he mumbles. His eye lids fluttering, he can see Laura standing awkwardly at the bedside.

'You should-'

'Stay,' he repeats and he reaches blindly. Metallic closes on flesh and he falls asleep with extra weight on his bed.

When he wakes up again his bed is empty, but he can see the rumpled covers to his left where Laura had curled up beside him.

He doesn't know what he was expecting, but he supposes this is fitting.


End file.
